"It's very hard to make something brilliant. It's much easier to stumble on something brilliant. I need to put myself in the way of as many mistakes as I possibly can..."
-Jonathan Safran Foer

01 July, 2009

Anyone up for a little lounge metal?

I was searching far and wide for some interesting covers of metal classics. I started with Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Coming" on The Hype Machine, and I came across this artist most adorably named Hellsongs. I skip along to "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, and the name comes up again. Why not give this cuddly-sounding band a try?, I thought. The amusing part is that the band does sound kind of cuddly. They are a Swedish, Metal, lounge, cover band.

They take the lyrics and basic melodic structure of the most loud, rambunctious, infectious, and angry metal songs, and they turn them into piano/guitar based pop songs. Now, I know quite a few music fans who would call this sacrilege, and maybe it does detract from the intention that is behind a lot of metal music (maybe it's like taking "London Calling" and having Fergie do a cover where she spells out the words "London" and "calling" irritatingly frequently). I personally find something precious and sweet about the whole idea of taking a song that is supposed to be dark and making it sound lighthearted. There is no way I could stand to listen to this music all the time, but I don't hate it. It kind of reminds me of Sesame Street's wonderful dips into Indie music culture with guest appearances by R.E.M. singing "Shiny Happy Monsters" and Feist teaching your children how to count (if you haven't seen this, then you are missing out: )

In this vein, Hellsongs covers Megadeth's classic "Symphony of Destruction" with pop song prowess and a nice level of respect for the original. I like the creativity: